I was in a corral, that was the only way to describe it. Inside were what seemed like hundreds of beautiful women around me, in various states of dress or undress as it may be. A girl next to me was wearing what looked like an outfit from Xena, Warrior Princess, that TV show that had been popular when I was young.
The ground was covered in a thick lush green grass, and there was a metal fence around the outside of us. A faint buzzing filled the air, and I suspected that the fence was electric. The women were trying to stay as far from it as possible.
I let out a small shriek when a creature passed outside the fence in front of me. It looked similar to the monster that we’d encountered and killed during the trials. Like that one, it was standing on two feet, the color of its skin a muddy green. It looked over at me, and its piercing yellow eyes had my heart beating faster. It opened its mouth and smiled at me, if you could call it a smile with its sharp teeth that looked to be leaking a fluorescent green saliva. Where in the world had I found myself now?
The leather bikini girl, as I'd been calling her in my head, put her hand gently on my shoulder.
"Are you all right?" she asked. I could tell she was a Vepar because of her vibrant, almost glowing, blue eyes. That and the horn that was extending out of the middle of her forehead. It didn't take away from the fact that she was beyond attractive though.
"What is this place?" I asked, choking in the delirious screams that were threatening to erupt out of me as another creature walked by outside the enclosure.
It seemed like they were acting as guards of some sort. Looking beyond them, I could make out brown domes dotting the landscape around the corral. They were similar to the Vepar structures, just a little rougher looking as if there hadn't been as much time or technology put into creating them.
"You don't recognize this place?" she said with a broken laugh.
I shook my head. "Those are Khonsu though, I recognize them at least,” I said, taking a deep breath to try and relax. I obviously wasn't going anywhere at the moment.
"This is their capital city," she explained, brushing off a piece of dirt on her arm.
Corran, Derrial, Thane. I suddenly thought, everything coming back to me.
Constantly being knocked out couldn’t be good for my brain, it was clear that I was beginning to forget things. If this kept happening there was going to be permanent damage.
Fear and regret darted through me. The doctor had said that Corran was in that grey ship. What had happened to him? Where were the others?
I began to look around for them frantically, just on the off chance they were here somehow. The female Vepar put another comforting hand on my shoulder. "You need to calm down. You’ll only attract their attention by acting like this. I'm pretty sure they can sense fear and they feed off of it,” she said.
I glanced over at her. She appeared perfectly calm. As if she wasn't in the camp of the Vepar’s worst enemy, or at least what I thought was the Vepar’s worst enemy. I still knew next to nothing about these people.
"How are you not freaking out right now?" I asked as my body began to tremble. "And what are we doing here? Why are we in a corral?" As I was talking, my gaze continued to scan the landscape for my men. I had been suspicious of them since the beginning. I thought we had finally gotten to a good place. I should be more trusting than this. There was no way they had been working with Dr. Cryon. Right?
"You're the human, aren't you?" she asked understandingly.
I nodded hesitantly.
"I thought that you were just hiding your Vepar features so as not to attract attention. But this is how you look, isn't it?" she asked, eyeing me head to toe.
"Yep, no horns for me," I said jokingly, not even sure how I was able to joke right now about anything.
"You would look good with horns," she said with a serious tone. That hysterical edge of laughter threatened to erupt again, and I had to use all my effort to tamp it down.
"So, you know what we're doing here?" I asked, redirecting her to the issue at hand.
Her face sobered. "I've only been told about it, but I believe that we’re here for the Tangazi, or Mating hunt in your language," she said softly.
The word "hunt" made my blood freeze. I knew all about being hunted by the Khonsu. First by the one who had come after me on earth, and second by the monster in the woods.
"Can the Khonsu take different forms?" I asked, realizing that no one had explained this to me.
"They have many different forms. What you see walking around this area is their real form. It's my understanding that they can look however they want, although I haven't seen that myself."
I nodded, that explained a lot. I had to admit that I much preferred their other forms to the monsters currently patrolling the area. I shivered, thinking of how that first Khonsu had tortured me, flaying off pieces of my skin while I shrieked in agony. Maybe I did prefer this form actually, at least it didn't look like they had whips on their person, if it were even capable of carrying whips in its clawed hands.
"What does this mating hunt consist of?"
She threw me a look of sympathy.
"Just what it implies. They let us loose, and then go hunt us. And whoever catches you is your new mate," she said in a haunted voice.
True terror surged through me. "It sounds so barbaric. Why wouldn't they just mate with their own kind?" I asked.
"Now what fun would that be?" she asked sarcastically. "They wouldn’t be the Khonsu if even their mating rituals didn't involve fear and destruction."
I saw a flash of blonde hair, or at least I thought I did. And I looked hopefully to see if it was Derrial. But whatever I'd seen had disappeared.
"Why are you here? Did you venture too far from the Vepar cities?" I asked.
A look of rage briefly passed over her face before she smoothed it out. "I'm here because many of the Vepars are just as bad as the Khonsu, if not worse."
A wave of pity passed over me. It was obvious that this poor woman had a dark story.
“I'm Ella," I offered with a small smile. I was grateful that this Vepar woman wasn't treating me as the rest had and was taking the time to at least explain things to me. I knew if Zeni were here, she would probably be throwing me up against the electrical fence at my audacity to ask any questions.
"My name is Bruda," she answered with her own small smile.
"Bruda," I repeated, thinking that the tough sounding name perfectly fit this Vepar who resembled a warrior Princess.
"Do you know when the hunt is supposed to start?" I asked, still desperately looking around for help.
It was interesting to watch the women around us. Some of the others were Vepars, but most were definitely of different alien races. They all were distinctly feminine, but also distinctly alien looking.
A woman off to my right was a dark, inky blue color. She had tubes coming out of her head instead of hair. The tubes were held back in some kind of elaborate headband. Her eyes were completely black, no white showing, and I jumped when they briefly turned to me, before losing interest quickly.
I was guessing it would be helpful in this situation that I resembled a form that the Vepar could take.
There were three gorgeous women off to my left, who were all a bottle green color. I gasped in amazement when I realized that there was a tube connecting the three of them. Literally, they were all one entity. It was like our conjoined twins back on earth, except in this case they had three distinct bodies.
Bruda must've seen me staring, because she made a small coughing sound to get my attention. They’re from the Dacasi," she explained.
“Many of the women there are born into groups of threes like that.”
"What do they do about dating, having sex, or anything else?" I asked.
She laughed. "Women on that planet who are born to a pairing like that, which is almost all of them really, all marry the same man. That takes care of all of those issues."
For a second, I wondered if my guys felt like that, like they were connected for life, since they were all dating me. What a strange life I had ended up having.
"Do they not have different species on your earth?" she asked.
We had gotten off topic, I needed to know about a million more things about this “hunt” before it started, but it was probably good for both of us to have some sort of distraction right now. It wouldn't hurt for me to answer a few questions.
"There are a lot of different species on Earth," I explained. "But before the Vepar invaded, we weren't aware that there were any other species from different planets on Earth."
Her eyes widened. "Really, there weren't any? So you thought…"
"So we thought we were all alone in the universe?" I asked self-deprecatingly. "Yes. As stupid as that sounds, we did think we were alone on the planet. That obviously has changed now."
She shivered. "Surely your leaders must have known. I can't imagine living in such a state of ignorance."
"We really didn't know any other way," I told her honestly. Thinking of the phrase ‘ignorance is bliss.’ I think I missed being able to be ignorant.
"I really don't think that our leaders knew either. But maybe I'm wrong about that. Our leaders are a bit lock lipped about state secrets to the common people.”
She nodded.
"Bruda, I would love to answer whatever questions you have about Earth and the humans, but I need to know about this situation we’re in before I can do that."
She nodded again, and I was once more glad that I had landed myself next to her. "Stories of the mating hunt are told to all Vepar children growing up. It’s a story that our parents tell us to try and keep us in line. “Be nice to your brother, Bruda, wouldn't want to have to send you to the Vepar for the hunt," my parents would tell us. “The stories could never compare to the real thing though," she said looking around us in disgust. "Obviously everything that I've heard is rumor. But how I've been told that it works is that sometime soon, sometime this week at least, the Khonsu men who are looking for mates will gather in an arena and we will be brought in to be inspected. They examine our looks, the strength of our teeth, use their technology to look at our fertility probability… Basically take stock of our assets," she explained.
My terror at this point was so thick that it was hard to breathe. They would know I was human. What if their technology could pick out what was special about my blood? What if I was already pregnant, what would they do? Horror like I'd never felt before swept through me.
"You're not fainting on me, are you? You’ve got to stay strong," Bruda ordered.
I took a deep breath, unwilling to tell her exactly why I was so afraid. A few more deep breaths seemed to calm me down.
"Continue," I said, proud of myself for keeping my voice calm.
“After they've showcased us to the hunters, they take us into the woods on their mountain.”
"Their mountain?" I asked perplexed.
She nodded. "The Khonsu have a mountain that they consider sacred. All of their important rituals are done within their woods or at the peak of the mountain. It's called Velati.”
She turned me around and I saw where the giant mountain was located in the distance.
"And what happens on that mountain?" I asked, dread trickling down my spine because I knew what she was going to say next.
"There, we are hunted," she said matter-of-factly. "Each Khonsu male who is participating in the hunt would've located their favorite based on the exhibition in the arena. They let us out into the woods under the guise that there’s a chance we could escape. But obviously that never happens,” she said with a whisper. “Once the Khonsu male catches their desired mate, the woman is then taken to the top of the mountain. And there she is raped on their sacred stone or in the woods or wherever they please." Bruda delivered this news in a voice void of any emotion.
My body felt like it was going to collapse. Raped. There had actually been quite a few times in my life where I had been touched without my permission, and there had definitely been situations that could've led to rape if I hadn’t been saved. I thought of the prison guard in the hallway where Thane had saved me.
Who was going to save me this time though? A wave of loneliness passed over me. I had just gotten to the point where I had felt safe for the first time in my life, and then it had been ripped away.
A thought hit me just then. What if the guys were dead? What if they had been found out after I had been captured?
"I'd been expecting that when I learned it was called a ‘mating hunt’” I said softly, trying to distract myself from the terrifying images that had filled my mind of the guys each being tortured and killed in various ways.
At that moment Bruda reached over and squeezed my hand, an act of solidarity and compassion that brought tears to my eyes.
"And then after the hunt, is there a marriage ceremony?" I asked with a faint laugh.
"According to what I've heard, by performing the...” she hesitated before continuing. "By performing the ritual, on their sacred mountain, that acts as the marriage ceremony."
I looked around and examined all of the women in the corral, all women that at least to me didn't look like they were Khonsu.
"Why don't they take their own women for their mates?" I asked.
“I've heard through gossip that the Khonsu women have the same fertility problems as the Vepar women. Unlike the Vepar, the Khonsu have no problem going outside of their race. From what I've heard, the Khonsu gene is dominant to all but the Vepar and any characteristics of other species are thus not carried over during the mating process. The child is born a Khonsu then for all intents and purposes."
I was immediately outraged upon hearing that. "If the Vepar genes are so strong, why was it so important to them then to take over Earth where the humans there have similar characteristics to them? Why couldn't they just go with another species and let the Vepar genes dominate whatever child was born?" I asked, furious at the idea that Earth could've been taken over for no reason.
Bruda was already shaking her head before I had finished ranting.
"Unfortunately, the Vepar genes do not work that way. The Vepar can only mate with compatible bloodlines, and your Earth is the only planet that's been found to have beings that are compatible to us.” She cocked her head, staring at me intently. "That is the reason that you are here, is it not? Even on Earth you were the only one found to be compatible."
I looked at her suspiciously. How would she know that? I knew it was common knowledge for the Council and Corran’s scientists, but I didn't think that the regular Vepar population would've heard about me.
She sighed. It was starting to get dark, and the last rays of Veon’s two suns cast her in a haunting orange glow. "As I'm sure you're aware now, the Council’s become corrupt. Your men were gone for too long. After they were gone, the Council decided that although they could not mate, they could still play."
I inhaled a shaky breath. The pain she had endured was so tangible, I could taste it on my tongue. Bruda had suffered immensely.
Her voice faded to a whisper, and I had to lean in closer to her to be able to hear her as she continued to haltingly speak.
"I was stolen from my parents and used as a slave for their pleasure."
"How did you end up here?" I asked gently, thinking that she was a beautiful woman. Whatever horrors she had been through had not affected her beauty.
"When I was first taken as the Council's pet, I complied with whatever they wanted thinking that it would make things easier if I just went along with it. But as time passed, I couldn't keep going. I started to fight back, making it so that every interaction was a battle. Although some of the Council members were into that sort of thing, the others didn't think that I was worth it. After all, there are a million women on Veon with the same looks as me. I was sent here as punishment, a gift to the Khonsu by the corrupt Council."
I didn't know what to say. I was shocked. I obviously had hated the Council for my own reasons but knowing the depths of their depravity took my hatred to a whole other level.
I suddenly remembered what she had said, that the Khonsu didn't mate with the Vepar because of the gene domination issues. Plus, the Vepar women were infertile so that wouldn’t work to begin with. I looked at her confused.
“You're wondering why I'm here if I can't have children?" she asked, a resigned look on her face.
I nodded, feeling bad that I was having her answer all of these difficult questions. "I'm here to continue what I was doing for the Council. But there's not a Khonsu male alive that won't enjoy my noncompliance."
I didn't know what was worse. If they thought I was a Vepar, or if they realized I was the evidently amazing alien baby breeding machine that I actually was.
Big ugly tears streamed down my face, garnering stares from the surrounding women. I didn't know how they were all handling this so well. If only they weren't, maybe we could all storm the walls or something and get out of here.
I laughed a little bit hysterically. That obviously wouldn't work. Not with the Khonsu in their beast forms patrolling the area. One swipe with their claws and we would be goners.
Then Bruda did something I would never forget. She gathered me in her arms and began to softly sing a haunting melody. Thanks to Corran’s language chip, I was able to understand it even though it was in Vepar.
I didn't understand all the terms. Even translated some of the Vepar words were too alien for my mind to comprehend.
But it filled me with peace. The fact that someone like Bruda, who had been through a life that was a literal nightmare for who knows how long, could offer comfort to me...Well, the world...or worlds as it was couldn't be that bad of a place.
I stayed in her arms as the sun set. Too scared to go to sleep, we spent the night talking about Earth.
"I would like to visit it one day," she said wistfully. "It sounds beautiful."
I thought of Veon and how beautiful it was, even compared to Earth. I thought of the poverty I had experienced on my planet, the loss of my parents. "Beautiful things sometimes hide the most terrible things,” I told her.
She stared off into the distance as a pack of Khonsu in their beast forms ran by. "I know all about that."
We both somehow drifted off to sleep, but we were awakened savagely by loud horns and laughing and roaring crowds that had gathered outside of the corral.
I sat up in alarm as did Bruda. "It must be time," she said sadly.
I couldn't answer her. I finally saw that the other women in the pen were starting to look nervous. They looked even more nervous when at least a hundred of the Khonsu in their beast forms surrounded the pen and started to chant loud savage sounds that shook the ground. It was terrifying to see so many of them in one place, gnashing their teeth. I noticed that the ground sizzled where their green saliva fell on it.
"Do they hunt us in those forms?" I asked in a horrified voice.
"I don’t know," Bruda said in a worried tone. "I don't know how we would make it to the top of the mountain if they did though, so let's hold off panicking about that."
I had become accustomed to the slight buzzing of the electrical fence, so I noticed right away when it stopped. Suddenly, a section of the fence started to slide by, creating an opening. Several of the Khonsu guards came to the opening and grunted at us to start moving. Apparently, they weren't able to communicate in their beast forms.
One by one we started to file out. I could feel the Khonsu’s leering gazes as we walked by, and it reminded me of that first Khonsu who had looked at me like I was more food than a person.
I couldn't help but look in the crowd for any of the guys. Despite my initial doubts, I was sure that they hadn't betrayed me. If they had wanted to use me for a certain purpose, they would've given me to the Council to begin with. As it was, they had sacrificed everything to try and make me safe. I was pretty positive that they loved me.
Although Bruda had said that the exhibition happened in their arena, there were so many Khonsu both in beast and man forms gathered around us, that it seemed like the exhibition had already started.
I was sure the view of the women as we walked resembled a kaleidoscope of colors. It seemed like almost every female there had to be from a different planet.
A Khonsu near me made strange moans as I walked by. Just like some of the more despicable men on earth, the Khonsu grabbed themselves and started rutting their hips like animals as we walked by.
I was going to be sick.
There were females sprinkled among the crowd, and I assumed they were the Khonsu women. They looked worn down, unhappy, and resigned with their lives. I didn't think that bade well for any of the women marching in this line.
I was still dressed in the hospital gown that I had been put in, and I was sure that my hair was all over the place. It didn't seem to matter though as the Khonsu’s eyes seemed to always find me. And it looked like they liked what they saw.
It became easier to try and ignore their looks, and I concentrated on studying the Khonsu city. It seemed like unlike the Vepar, who preferred to have space between their dwellings, the Khonsu didn't mind living close to one another.
They didn't seem to have the technology that the Vepar did to cook food, as I could see smoke coming out of the tops of some of the dwellings. Most of the buildings were plain, but occasionally we would pass by some that had silvery markings all around the entrance.
Bruda leaned closer as we passed by an especially elaborate one. "Those markings denote the elite of the Khonsu culture. The ink used to make the markings is very expensive, and only certain families possess it.”
I nodded; thankful she knew so much about the Khonsu.
I came to a screeching halt a moment later when we passed by what looked like a courtyard. There were five very human looking Khonsu playing with the black whips that had been used to torture me. My mouth opened in a silent scream as I saw that they were using the whips on a dozen tiny creatures that possessed shiny white fur. The little creatures were emitting shrieks of pain that threatened to burst my eardrums.
Losing my head momentarily, I took a step forward to go to them. I was only stopped by Bruda grabbing my arm tightly. "You cannot intervene. Do you want them to use those whips on you?" she hissed urgently.
Resuming my slow walk in line, I shivered as we left the screams behind us.
Bruda was silent for a moment as we marched. "What was that back there? Do you have no sense of self-preservation?" she asked.
"I know exactly what those whips feel like. Forgive me if it was hard to see them using them on such innocent creatures," I said softly.
"You're going to need to toughen up if you are going to survive this next part," Bruda said matter-of-factly.
I could see what had to be the arena rising in front of us in the distance. Unlike the dome like structures that made up their dwellings, the arena looked to be a perfectly square copper colored box. I had never seen anything like it.
"From what I've been told, the Khonsu will do whatever to get their prey in the hunt," Bruda continued urgently. "If you're going to fight, be prepared to have those whips used on you again."
The thought of those whips touching me again almost made me want to just give in. “Almost” being the important word.
We arrived at the arena. Unlike the crudeness of their dwellings, the arena’s outside walls were perfectly smooth. A few of the guards at the front of the line made some grunting noises, and the wall in front of us began to slide open.
I gasped as we walked inside. There had to be thousands of Khonsu in both beast and their human looking forms sitting on stands that appeared to be floating in the air. The bottom two rows of the stands held only human looking Khonsu, however. They were all dressed in dark purple tunics. The fact that their eyes were lit up in anticipation let me know that these were the Khonsu who would be taking part in the hunt.
“I bet their dicks are small,” I muttered to Bruda, who let out a surprised snort.
The guard ahead of us looked backwards to make sure we were following him and must've seen the smirks on both of our faces. He rolled his eyes. "Pay attention," he barked at us. We immediately sobered up.
In the center of the arena was a large open space with packed dirt that was so smooth it almost looked like a giant basketball court. A pedestal stood in the very middle, where I presumed we would be put on display one by one for observation by the crowd.
The beastly guards at the head of our line made a roaring sound and the women in front of me all stopped. A Khonsu with oily black hair that reminded me of the first Khonsu that I had met, dressed in crimson robes, appeared from behind us and walked towards the pedestal, paying no attention to the prisoners he passed by.
He stood up on the pedestal and tapped his throat three times. The arena immediately went silent.
"Let the Tangazi begin,” he said in a voice that reminded me of a hissing snake. The crowd immediately began to roar again. The Khonsu dressed in the purple robes stood in unison as if they had practiced the movement. They began to beat their fists over their hearts. The loud thumping sound echoed across the arena, sending shivers down my spine.
The Khonsu on the pedestal stepped down and impatiently signaled the first female prisoner to step up on the pedestal. Another Khonsu male stepped forward with some kind of device in his hand. He waved it in front of the terrified looking female, a beautiful alien with gold looking skin and green hair that shimmered down her back. A series of numbers appeared above her head.
I leaned toward Bruda. "What are those?" I asked, gesturing to the numbers.
She looked at me wide-eyed. "I have no idea. But it can't be good,” she admitted, and her response terrified me.
The Khonsu with the device said something to the female and she opened her mouth, displaying her teeth.
I again leaned towards Bruda. "What’s their obsession with teeth?" I asked. I must have said something humorous because a smile crossed her face despite our dire circumstances.
"Are good teeth not important on your planet?" she asked.
"I mean I guess they are, but not to this extent,” I replied, listening as the crowd cheered at the beautiful alien’s display of her shiny, shark-like teeth.
I suddenly regretted all of the dentist visits I had been forced to attend growing up. Maybe if my teeth weren’t so straight and shiny the Khonsu wouldn’t want me.
The Khonsu must've been pleased with her exhibition, because she was led off the pedestal much more gently then she had been put on it.
Dread curdled in my stomach as female after female was displayed. Some of them garnered appreciation so loud that my eardrums threatened to burst while others had much quieter receptions. I somehow thought that those prisoners were the luckier ones as they were more likely to have less Khonsu after them once the hunt began.
Bruda had been standing behind me, but when there were only three females in front of us, she stepped in front of me. I wasn't sure why she was so intent on protecting me, but I was grateful for it. She grabbed my hand behind her back and squeezed it in solidarity. Her strength gave me strength. Whatever happened, I could get through it. I would live through it. If Bruda could do it, so could I.
Bruda was finally called. She stepped up onto the stone pedestal, her head held high. Shrieks, hisses, and loud cheers from the crowd filled the air. They obviously could tell that there was their enemy, a Vepar, standing in front of them. And they loved that she was their prisoner.
Bruda clasped her hands behind her back, the only sign of nerves a slight trembling of her hands. She kept her head held high, her brown hair floating in the soft breeze. She really did look like the picture of a warrior princess standing there.
The crowd grew louder and louder, and I could see the anticipation in the purple clad Khonsu’s eyes as they stared at her. They would be well aware that she couldn’t provide them children, so the glimmer of excitement in their eyes could only mean one thing-that they were excited at the prospect of torturing her. I couldn't think of anything I could do to help her.
The Khonsu were yelling strange words at Bruda, words that my translator once again couldn't pick up. I could tell by their connotation though they weren't anything good. Still Bruda kept her chin held high, refusing to let them know that they were affecting her.
Numbers appeared in the air over her head. I still hadn’t figured out quite what they meant, but I saw that the bottom score was a zero. Perhaps that was her fertility score? That would make sense it was a zero and none of the others had been a zero if the Vepar was the only race that the Khonsu couldn't have children with.
Bruda’s teeth were checked, and then she was finished, and it was my turn.
I took a deep breath, determined to put on as brave a face as Bruda had just done. I stepped onto the pedestal and the same hissing and cheers filled the air as they had with Bruda. They thought I was another Vepar so of course it made sense for them to act that way. I kept my chin held high, holding onto the sides of my hospital gown. I was well aware of how naked I was underneath it and wished so badly that I had some form of undergarments on. I had never imagined myself in a position like this.
I could tell when the numbers appeared above my head, because the crowd all of a sudden descended into silence. I took a peek upwards, and was terrified to see that the bottom number, the one that I suspected was a measure of fertility, read one million.
It was like the crowd took a collective breath, and then all hell broke loose. Khonsu, even the ones not dressed in purple tunics, were trying to clamber off their benches to get onto the field to get to me.
The two that had been in charge of the exhibition started screaming and yelling to try to gain order, but there was nothing they could do.
It was pure pandemonium, and I was pretty sure that my worst fears were about to be realized a little bit earlier than I had anticipated.
Evidently, I was never going to make it to the sacred rock.
I was going to die out here.
When an especially fierce looking Khonsu, who was halfway transformed between his beast form and his normal form was just about to touch me with a long clawed hand, a sudden bolt of electricity burst out of the ground, covering the entire field with an electrical shock save the stone pedestal I was standing on. All of the Khonsu who had rushed the field had been struck down with the blast. I watched as they convulsed in agony, some of them still attempting to move towards me despite their obvious pain.
At this point, all semblance of me remaining calm was gone. I was shaking as I watched them all writhe on the ground. Some of them looked like parts of them had been charred. It was a gruesome sight.
Looking behind me was even worse. I cried out when I saw what had happened. There had been three captives left in line behind me. They had been roasted to a crisp in the blast and were almost unrecognizable. Obviously whatever electrical waves went out catered towards the Khonsu and was deadly towards other races.
The beautiful blue alien that I had first caught sight of in the corral was one of the fallen. I only could tell it was her because her headband had been bejeweled, and somehow it had survived the blast and was lying near her body. A deep sense of loathing passed over me. This had happened because of me. Whatever mutation was in my blood that caused the alien male species to absolutely lose their minds, had also caused these females’ deaths. It was bad enough that they had been prisoners to begin with, but there could've been a chance that maybe the Khonsu who caught them would've been a good mate for them. Not a large chance, but still a chance. Or maybe they would've even escaped or been saved by their planets. Now they would never get that chance.
I was yanked out of my mourning by the Khonsu who must've set off the blast, the one who had been in charge of the ceremony, with the crimson robes. He pulled me away without saying a word.
A path had been cleared to where the other prisoners had been taken. I could see them huddled in the tunnel we were walking towards, their faces alight with fear. Bruda was at the head of them, her face twisted in horror and relief at the sight of me.
She rushed toward me. "Are you all right?" she cried.
I was shaking so much I could barely respond. "I can't believe that happened," I said.
I didn't get a chance to speak with her further. The crimson robed Khonsu dragged me by an arm past the long line of frightened prisoners.
“Where are you taking me?" I cried.
"Somewhere safe," he growled. "You'll be in isolation until it's time for the hunt to begin." He looked back at me, his eyes dragging from my head all the way to my toes, making me feel like I was naked and dirty. "It would be to the benefit of our race if I let all of them have you though," he said with a smirk. "You're so fertile, who knows how many Khonsu children you could give us."
I threw up right then and there. There was nothing but bile since I hadn’t been fed in twenty-four hours, but it was enough to make me not look as palatable.
“Let's go," he ordered with a disgusted look on his face.
I was thrown into a concrete cell. Two guards were set up outside of the entrance to my cell. They didn't even look at me, and I wondered what special orders they had been given concerning me. At least it didn't seem like they were going to jump me.
I was alone and freezing, but a tray full of food that resembled vegetables was pushed into the room eventually along with a faded, threadbare blanket. I guess they figured that it wouldn’t be good for my fertility for me not to eat at all.
I picked at the food despite the fact that I was starving. It was hard to muster up a willingness to eat when I couldn't get the scene from the field out of my head.
The night was long. Without Bruda to help me pass it, it felt like it stretched on forever. Like I had actually lived several nights instead of just one.
I was exhausted when one of the guards finally opened the cell door.
“Get up," he barked.
My joints felt frozen with the cold, and I stumbled a bit trying to get up. He led me down a long hallway. When we finally got outside of the arena, I was relieved to see the rest of the female prisoners waiting outside of a small spaceship that I assumed would be transporting us to where the hunt began. It reminded me of the ship we had been taken on during the Vepar trials.
That had seemed a lot less foreboding then the situation now did, however.
Looking around, I realized that I didn't see Bruda anywhere. Were their multiple ships? Had some of the female prisoners already been taken? I hadn't counted how many of us there were, but it looked like all the other prisoners were here based on the ones I had remembered. What had happened to her?
I felt a sense of panic. Once I was released by the guard to mingle with the rest of the prisoners, I turned to the alien closest to me. "Excuse me, have you seen the Vepar that I was with yesterday? The one dressed in a leather outfit with dark brown hair?" I asked her. The alien I spoke to was gorgeous, just like all the others, with shiny orange skin and hair that was a flaming red color. Her eyes matched her hair.
She scanned the crowd around us. "I haven't seen her. Not since last night. I didn't notice anyone being taken away though, so she must be around here somewhere."
“So there hasn't been another ship that's left for the mountain?" I asked.
She shook her head at me sympathetically. "No, as far as I know, with the exception of the ones who died yesterday, the rest of us are still here."
I nodded despondently. There wasn't anything I could do about Bruda’s disappearance at the moment. I just hoped that she was okay. It was a stupid thing to hope since how any of us could be okay in a situation like this as a prisoner of the Khonsu. But I still sent up a silent prayer that something good had happened to her. She deserved it.
If I ever got a chance, I would try to find out what happened to her.
The golden skinned alien had asked me a question, but I'd been so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear her until she was almost done speaking.
She tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. "What planet are you from?" she asked curiously. “You look like you could be a Vepar, but with that performance yesterday, there's no way that you are,” she continued, studying me closely.
"I'm from Earth," I responded absentmindedly, my thoughts still on Bruda’s whereabouts.
"I've heard of that place. It is one of the Vepar colonies, isn't it?" she asked innocently. Earth being called a Vepar colony filled me with a hate so strong that I could barely answer.
"I suppose you could call it that," I said stiffly. "Colony does denote that the planet was taken over. Which is what happened," I continued.
She nodded uncomfortably. Obviously, I wasn't doing a great job of keeping my emotions in check when it came to that subject.
"I'm sorry, as you can imagine by my presence here, it's a little bit of a sore subject," I said conciliatorily.
"My planet was taken over by another as well. You don't have to apologize to me about having anger over such a thing."
I opened my mouth to respond, but just then a horn sounded, and we were surrounded by a horde of Khonsu guards who began to push us towards the spacecraft. A long plank descended from the opening of the craft and we walked on it into the ship single file. The inside of the ship was set up somewhat like the aircraft I had seen in military movies on Earth. There was a long row of seats on each wall with harnesses attached to each seat. Staying in line, we all took a seat and strapped ourselves in the harnesses under the careful watch of the guards.
There was still a part of me that expected one of my guys to appear at any moment to save the day. But as everyone filed in, and the doors were closed, it looked less and less like that was going to occur.
I was truly on my own.
The ship took off, and I felt my stomach heave at the sudden movement. There were no windows inside the craft, and that didn't help my motion sickness. Obviously the Khonsu hadn't bothered installing the technology or didn’t possess the Vepar technology that allowed you to travel without sickness.
I couldn't decide whether it was a good thing or not that we landed so quickly. On the one hand, I didn't feel like I had to throw up anymore, but on the other hand, this meant that the hunt was about to start.
I guess there was no sense in delaying the inevitable.
We unhooked the harnesses and again left the ship single file. Stepping out, I could see that we had landed at the base of the Khonsu’s sacred mountain. The mountain was covered with an assortment of trees. The trees all had different colored leaves, kind of like how fall had looked back home. Things were different here than where the Vepar lived, however. The colors weren’t nearly as vibrant. It actually reminded me a lot more of Earth in general than the Vepar side had.
When I was younger, my parents took me on a trip to Utah during my school’s fall break and we had hiked Mount Timpanogas. This mountain reminded me of that, and a sudden bout of homesickness hit me.
Looking around to distract myself from the feeling, I realized I didn't see any of the purple tunic clad Khonsu anywhere in sight. Where were they? Were they hiding in the mountains, intent on pouncing on us as we tried to run for our lives?
My question was answered when a more decadent ship that was obviously superior to the ones that they had put us in (it had windows at least) landed a little ways away from ours.
The Khonsu filed out of the ship eagerly, looking immediately to where their prey was standing. Most of their eyes were centered on me, and I had the feeling that this was going to be the hardest experience of my life.
We were led to the edge of the forest at that point. The Khonsu didn't seem to have any intentions of giving us instructions. Looking around at my fellow prisoners, they all looked terrified, but also resigned. They must've grown up with stories of the hunt as well.
The Khonsu warriors stayed close to the ship. Evidently, we were going to be given a head start...how kind of them.
Just then a loud blast went off. The females in front of me started to run into the woods.
It was starting.
I took off after them, and then took a hard left after a few minutes. If I was going to have to go through this, at least I could take some of the pressure off of the rest of the prisoners since I knew most of the Khonsu would be after me.
The woods were like a whole other world. Large trees blocked the sun, making it cool and dim. Dead leaves crunched under my bare feet. I was lucky that my feet had toughened up during the trials or I would be limping right now.
There were strange noises all around me, and occasionally I got a glimpse of the end of a tail or the feathers on a wing as whatever creatures I was disturbing as I ran through the woods tried to hide.
Another blast sounded. I could tell it was for the Khonsu warriors because despite the fact that I'd probably made it at least a mile away from where we had first started, the ground shook a bit as the warriors entered the forest.
It only took a few minutes for me to hear the screams start as the Khonsu found some of the prisoners.
A burst of adrenaline sent me pushing forward. There had to be a way out of this, there just had to be.
I was so caught up on running as fast as I could, that I didn't even hear the first Khonsu when he reached me. I wasn't aware that he was there until a thin, silver colored rope was suddenly wrapped around my neck, choking me.
Stupidly, I still tried to lurch forward, desperate to get away. This only served to choke me even further. Maybe I would die before the rape happened, I thought to myself as the world started to fade to black.
Suddenly the rope was cut behind me, and I fell to the ground, heaving huge gulps of air. The sound of flesh hitting bone had me turning around to see the scene behind me.
Two purple clad Khonsu were wrestling on the ground. I gasped at the scene, shocked as one of them pulled out a razor-sharp knife the color of black obsidian. He raised the knife high above the Khonsu he had forced to the ground, a Khonsu who had the remnants of a broken rope in his hand, and he slashed the knife down. I watched in horror as the other warrior's flesh was split open, his blood seeping into the ground below him.
Only at that point did I get the wits about me to begin to run again. As much as I didn't want to be caught by the first one, this other Khonsu seemed like he would be even worse judging by the delighted look on his face as he had stabbed his fellow warrior.
Just as that Khonsu was about to get up from the ground, another Khonsu warrior tackled him to the ground. This time I didn't stop to watch what happened.
I just ran.
A fierce grunt came from behind me, and then the gurgle of blood as one of them killed the other.
I continued to run.
I was almost captured at least five more times. Each time I thought that it was the end until another Khonsu warrior would erupt from the woods to stop my current assailant and try to claim me.
There was a trail of Khonsu corpses littered behind me on the path that I was traveling.
I was exhausted, but still I kept running.